Updated May 19, 1 p.m. EST:AllThingsD reports that the Yahoo! board has unanimously approved a deal to purchase Tumblr for $1.1 billion. More updates to follow.

Updated May 17, 8:20 p.m. EST: Yahoo!’s board plans to meet Sunday to decide whether to approve a $1.1 billion all-cash offer for New York-based social blogging platform Tumblr, AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka reported late Friday. If approved by Yahoo!’s board, the deal — which could still fall through — will be announced Monday. Earlier Friday, Yahoo! invited reporters to a “product” event in New York City on Monday at 5 p.m.

Original post: Internet icon Yahoo! is in talks to buy New York-based social blogging platform Tumblr for as much as $1 billion, according to multiplereports. At that price, Tumblr would be pretty expensive, given that it reportedly only booked $13 million in revenue last year, but the deal could still make sense for Yahoo! That’s because Tumblr is extremely popular with the 18-to-24 year-old-set, precisely the demographic CEO Marissa Mayer is targeting as she attempts to turn the purple-hued Internet pioneer around following a multi-year slump.

Tumblr has long been considered a major prize, so it’s no surprise that Yahoo! isn’t the only one interested in the company. Tumblr has also reportedly held talks with both Facebook and Microsoft, according to Forbes. Of course, Tumblr CEO David Karp may decide to hold out — he’s reportedly raising a new venture capital round that values the company at $1 billion. Or he may opt for a “strategic investment,” in which Yahoo! or some other big company invests in Tumblr, which would then remain independent. Tumblr has already raised $125 million at an $800 million valuation.

What Tumblr lacks in revenue, it makes up in “coolness.” The site has become a major destination for young urbanites to post photos, snarky comments, and other ephemera, and then share that content with others. Tumblr is also a very large and fast growing community. It had worldwide traffic of 117 million visitors in April, according to comScore data cited by AllThingsD. Tumblr claims it hosts 107.9 million blogs that have generated 50.7 billion posts.

Taken together, Tumblr’s brand appeal and growth make it an attractive target, especially for Yahoo! CEO Mayer. “If you could pick a company that fits in with what Marissa Mayer has demonstrated in her career — aesthetics, software, technology, and fast-growing — you could not land on a better choice,” one source told AllThingsD.

A Yahoo! spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on “rumors and speculation,” and a Tumblr spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Another reason Tumblr could be attractive to Yahoo! is the frequency with which its users post on the site. Mayer wants to incorporate Yahoo!’s products — including search, email, and its popular homepage — into the “daily habits” of its users, in an echo of the “toothbrush” philosophy espoused by her former boss, Google CEO Larry Page. Yahoo! currently has massive traffic — over 700 million users worldwide — but what it doesn’t have is a social platform. Tumblr could fix that.

Mayer has made no secret that she’s on the lookout for acquisitions. And with over $4 billion in cash, she certainly has the resources to execute a blockbuster deal. In recent months, Yahoo! has reportedly been kicking the tires at Foursquare, Path, Pinterest, and Hulu, according to TechCrunch. “Literally they talk to everyone,” one source told the tech website.

Perhaps more than anything else, buying Tumblr would generate the sort of excitement that Yahoo! needs as it seeks to boost employee morale and position itself as a cool place to work amid an intensely competitive job market for engineers and programmers. Mayer has a long road ahead to complete the Yahoo! turn-around she envisions, but Wall Street likes what it has seen so far. Since assuming command of Yahoo! last July, the company’s stock price has soared by 70%.

The acquisition of Tumblr by Yahoo could be a good deal for both companies. Yahoo needs innovation and the owners of Tumblr need cash. Cool things are happening in the tech world. The new Nokia 928 4G is now available. http://t.co/nFk8F3BhLA

In a world where everything is connected to everything else... tumblr is a place where we can get away from all of that. It's our beautiful blue hermits cave. Don't go in there and start mining out main roads.

I will honestly delete my blog if yahoo buys tumblr and makes the changes that the article suggests they are going to. I don't want my email or the yahoo homepage or search on my blog. I think that what yahoo is missing is that tumblr is a blogging platform, and if they payed any attention to what the people who actually use the site want they would see that we're pretty much trying to tell them to back off.

However I would find it ironic if they did buy it (they'd better not) because so many of us use google chrome as our browser.

Please don't.. Leave Tumblr be. It's the only place where I can escape from a stressful life. It's the only place where I've met people that accept me fully for who I am. Please just go make your own social platform, leave Tumblr alone! We don't anything to do with you guys, Tumblr and Yahoo will never be good together, it just doesn't work. So keep your money, you would just be wasting it.

"Another reason Tumblr could be attractive to Yahoo! is the frequency with which its users post on the site. Mayer wants to incorporate Yahoo!’s products — including search, email, and its popular homepage — into the “daily habits” of its users"

NO.

It's obvious with all these complaints, don't do it. You do not understand Tumblr, it's not just a social platform. In fact, I personally don't even consider it one. It's a place where people express themselves, find friends from across the world, it's many things but NOT what YOU think it is.

Terrible idea... Yahoo doesn't understand the majority of tumblr users at all. We feel safe there. We don't want to connect with people with know in real life. We don't want our email connected or people to see our "daily habits," whatever the heck that's supposed to mean.

Don't try to turn it into a FB or Google+. There's a reason we're on tumblr more than those sites. Create your own if you want that, instead of ruining a good site.

It sucks that Yahoo is probably really going to buy tumblr. From what I've seen, David Karp really doesn't care that much about tumblr.. I mean, at least not enough to pass up this kind of money. It really sucks because it looks like, financial-wise, someone needs to buy tumblr to be able to support it, but none of the big companies that could buy it understand it enough to do it right.

NO GOD NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NONO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING YAHOO, TRYING TO RUIN OUR LIVES?! I will never in my life reblog your news and use your email SO DONT TRY AND RUIN A GOOD THING.

No :( I love Tumblr and would stop going on it if Yahoo bought it. They say it has the 18-24 year old set demographic they're looking for to rebirth Yahoo! or whatever but what all these stupid adults don't realize is that we hate change and most of us hate Yahoo! so if they bought it, it would defeat the entire purpose since we would all leave and then they'd be bankrupt and worse off that where they started. DON'T buy Tumblr. Keep your grubby hands to yourselves.

Tumblr is not a social blogging platform, it is a place for the the misfits of society, the fandoms, the completely insane, porn, the bullied, and the people who have no where else to go. We dont want you to buy Tumblr. We dont want you to ruin it, change it, put ads in it, restrict it, put a bunch of copyright infringement stuff on it(likeyoutube did) or do anything with it. just leave it. try to remember, that for some people, this is all that they have.

I SAID NO! Yahoo abandons everything yhet they buy and then close it, and in the Tumblr we would see invaded by advertising, junk mail and SPAM, exactly as if we had an email account yahoo. I SAY NO to the sale of tumblr to yahoo.